To the editor:
In the recent Primary Election, Republican state Rep. Mike Fleck, running unopposed in the 81st District, received more than 3,400 votes in Huntingdon County - more than any other candidate on the ballot.
I find this ironic since Rep. Fleck and his state Senate colleague, John H . Eichelberger, recently voted with nearly every other Republican state representative in Harrisburg to make it more difficult for the elderly, minorities and the poor to vote. Nearly every state Republican representative and senator voted to require every voter to have photo ID or special non-picture ID for the fall election. Every Democratic senator and representative and several Republicans voted against the ill-conceived measure.
This at a time when every responsible leader has tried for years to make voting easier in a country that prides itself as a democratic republic and where only about 40 per cent of eligible voters go to the polls now.
Before the final vote March 12 in the state House, my wife and I wrote to Rep. Fleck and urged him to vote "no" when this bill came up for a final vote in the House. Sen. Eichelberger had voted for the bill March 7 and Fleck had previously voted for it last June 23. The bill passed the Senate 26-23 and the House 104-88. All "yes" votes were cast by Republicans and all "no" votes by Democrats.
Republican efforts in other states to make voting more difficult for the elderly, the poor and minorities have been blocked by the federal Justice Department. No pattern of voter fraud has been shown to exist in Huntingdon County or Pennsylvania and no case has been proved that previous laws on this topic are insufficient.
This bill, now a law signed by Republican Gov. Corbett, brings no honor to the Republican party in Pennsylvania.
Eugene R. Goshorn
Mount Union
